MANHATTAN, Kan. - A college campus can be a scary and intimidating place at times. Students can often feel like outsiders, become victims of bullying, or some cases, worse. Kansas State University has a program which rejects prejudices and discrimination of all kinds, and promotes non-violence and respect among every person. SafeZone is a program devoted to helping students who feel threatened or troubled. Student's troubles can range from dealing with hate crimes or bullying, to homophobia, to sexual violence or any distressing situation where they may need somebody to talk to. In these cases a student can seek out a SafeZone ally, who have the SafeZone symbol posted in their office or backpack, or are listed on the SafeZone website.
A SafeZone ally is a person (faculty, administrator, or student) who promotes a safe community by providing a safe and judgment free space for a troubled student to go for support and assistance. An ally is there to listen, communicate, and give hope to a troubled student, and if necessary refer them to other resources. An ally is aware of many other campus and community resources to turn to if they feel that the student needs more help than they are able to give. They can refer someone to places such as the Women's Center, Counseling Services, the Office of Student Life, Campus Police, and others. SafeZone allies are required to go through a training session to learn how to deal with student's issues and learn about the additional resources on campus and in the Manhattan community, and have many opportunities for further training throughout the year.
College should be a rewarding and eye opening experience. Kansas State is devoted to making sure that every student has the opportunity to have the positive experience they deserve by providing a safe and welcoming community. As a student of Kansas State, I only know of SafeZone, but hopefully other Kansas universities have similar programs to promote equality and safety on campus.
Kristen, welcome to Kansas Free Press. We're so happy to have you writing with us. And, thank you, too for this information about SafeZone. That sounds like such an important program. Good job!
Thanks for a well-written, important piece, Kristen! That sounds like a much-needed program for every university campus, and as a K-State alumnae, I'm proud to know this service is provided to students there.
The program is a great selling point for parents. Often, college-attending children strongly feel the need to be independent and grown-up, and they don't turn to parents for much more than money. Unfortunately, the schools reinforce this with privacy policies, while parents sit at home clueless of any issues, but still worrying constantly and hoping their child will turn to them if there is a real need. Maybe they will...maybe they won't. There's a scary unknown there. Having programs like this in place can help ease parents' anxiety by knowing if their child needs advice on a situation that could get out of hand or become dangerous, there is somewhere they can turn. If it's marketed effectively so that it is well-known enough for students to recommend it to their friends and all students know how to easily access the service, it's all the better.